Hi all, I'm currently working on my brakes which were seized after nearly 20 years of no use. I'm rebuilding the ATE calipers and for anyone doing this, Bigg Red on ebay has all four front 48mm pistons/seals for £40 (part No. BRKP86.) I got the rear seals from buycarparts.co.uk (autodoc.de) for £4 each side (D4096) and they have the front seal sets for £5 each side (248030.) My rear pistons were fine but the fronts were bad plus I damaged the lips levering them out. My plan for the front is to use the Wilwood forged narrow Dynalites (120-15255, $108 from Sports Compact Warehouse) which have 7% more piston area and a much bigger pad (bought the Hawk fast road pads to try.) I will make brackets to mount the calipers that will allow me to use both the standard 274mm disk (rotor) and also mount the calipers further out on the same bracket for bigger disks to use behind my 17" wheels. I will do the same setup at the back using either the Wilwood 120-11578 (11% more piston area) or just use the standard 38mm ATE rear calipers so as to have a "functioning" handbrake. For disks, I am looking at around 300mm diameter, 22-24mm thick front and 20-22mm rear. Since most disks have 6-7mm thick mounting faces (compared to 16mm originals), the disk heights would need to be around 67-69mm. Any suggestions? I looked on the Brembo website and it looks like there are several options: Boxter, BMW (E81, E87, E88, E90), Mercedes (W211, 218,219), Jag (XJ40, XK8). Has anyone tried these? I like the Boxter disks as I can get the cross-drilled Brembo disks for £57 ea and they really look the business! There are performance aftermarket disks for all the other ones too but they don't have the karma benefits of putting a P part on an F car
Seems like you are trying to over-complicate things a bit for yourself by reinventing this wheel. Why not simply fit the 308-specific Hi Spec kits, front and /or rear, as marketed by Superformance, who is located (relatively) close to you? I've been running their front kit for over a decade now, and have been very pleased. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
That would be cheating ;-) Also, two Wilwood calipers £163, Hawk pads £45, front stainless hoses £39, 2x Brembo racing disks £114, 2x custom brackets £100 = £461 which is less than half the cost of the HiSpec kit. The added bonus is my brackets will mount the calipers lower if needed for the original disks and 14" wheels which was the main reason for doing this. In future if the disks need to be changed they are only £57 each (£30 if you don't want them cross-drilled.) The back upgrade will be be similar except £6 more for the two Wilwood calipers. I'll start with the original calipers, Mintex 1144 pads, stainless hoses and the big Brembo disks since it has to have a handbrake to pass its MOT (road-worthiness).
The Montreal Subway system actually uses dense yellow birch or cherry wood brake pads, soaked in peanut oil. The brake drums last the life of the vehicle, and there is none of the ear splitting squeeling sound you get on metal and composite subway brakes. The electromagnetic braking effect also helps, but still, wood was a very open minded engineering choice!
A San Francisco cable car has 3 brake systems. One is a track brake which presses a pine wood block against the track to stop the car!
I mean no disrespect. but for a car that has only 240 HP at the crank, the ATE calipers you are rebuilding are adequate enough for a 308. Unless you will be upgrading the motor and tracking the car, why bother??
Carl, My engine rebuild is documented here, google Derek's 308. I put in forged JE 10.5:1 pistons, 348 crank, CAT cams, programmable MSD ignition... and will re-jet the carbs on a dyno. I have bought some 5-spoke Cromodora 17" wheels and plan to use those for an occasional track day but want to have the option to go back to stock 14" wheels easily and without removing calipers, re-bleeding etc. Picking up my Wilwood calipers today and have bought a Boxter and a BMW 300mm disk to test fit next week. Bigg Red's rebuild kits came in one day and look good. Anyone know where to get the rear caliper adjuster covers? Mine stripped as they are prone to do (tapped with a chisel and then tapped in a torx to get them out)
I installed these on my 85 308 with stock rear rotors. Worked great. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0786KY464
What’s wrong with ATE brakes? I have the standard ATE brakes on one 308 and 348 brakes on another and they both let me stop as fast as I can before locking up. I can’t tell the difference. Will another brake setup really change squat about how the car stops? Or is it another seat of the pants thing to make the car all that and a bag of chips? Is it a track thing?
You need to do the upgrade on all four corners otherwise you could end up in a ditch, or if you're on the track a wall.
So the 298mm diameter Boxter disk arrived and a quick check showed the geometry isn’t ideal for an easy adapter plate. With the caliper centralised, there is about 7mm space for an adapter but the two sets of holes are very close to each other and it would be easier if the disk was slightly bigger diameter. I found a single new BMW F20 disk for £16 on eBay so will test that. It is 312mm and about 5mm deeper hat so will give a little more space for a spacer. The Wilwood caliper fits well with the original disk so could be used with the 14” wheels as well. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
If you're doing a custom adapter already, why not consider rotating the caliper about 20*-30* clockwise or ccw, using the adapter to relocate the mounting holes laterally instead of radially? What are your handbrake plans again? The stock 308 handbrake is so weak that a better handbrake should be a major objective of a rear brake upgrade...
I thought about trimming the back plate a little or rotating its mount but think the BMW disk will be better because apart from avoiding the back plate changes, the Boxter disc hub hole is 98mm so won’t work well with the original 108mm wheel bolt PCD. Even though I plan to use the 120mm PCD, it would be useful to have s system that will work with the aftermarket 16” wheels with 108 PCD. I’ll use the original calipers on the bigger disks to start with as I need a handbrake to register the car. After that I may switch to Wilwoods as it’s not a rally car so I don’t need a hand brake
